Thanksgiving Turkey

Ingredients:

• 1 Turkey -12lbs (feeds 8-10)
• Soul to Belly Black Garlic Seasoning Salt 
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Black Garlic, lemon, parsley compound butter (recipe below)
• 2 small onions, peeled and halved
• 1 lemon, halved
• 1 head of garlic, halved horizontally
• 6 bay leaves
• olive oil, to drizzle
• 5-8 strips of smoked bacon

 Instructions: 

1. Preheat your oven to 425° and allow your compound butter to come to room temperature and soften. 
2. Pat your turkey completely dry and season the inside cavity and the outside with Black Garlic Salt and fresh cracked pepper. 
3. Slide your hand gently between the skin and meat to loosen it a little but be careful not to break the skin! It takes a gentle hand and some finesse to get work your way over the breast and down to the thighs. 
4. Grab small handfuls of the compound butter and push it under the skin. You can use your hand outside of the skin to push and press the butter around to evenly distribute it. 
5. Rub the rest of the butter all over the outside of the turkey and place in your roasting pan. 
6. Put the onions, lemons, garlic, and bay leaves into the cavity of the turkey and tie the legs together with cooking twine. 
7. Flip the wing tips behind the "neck" to keep everything nice and tucked in. 
8. Drizzle some olive oil over the turkey to keep the butter from burning and place in the oven breast side up for 10 minutes to get a quick browning. 
9. After 10 minutes, drop the oven temperature to 350. 
10. Cover the breast of the turkey with the bacon strips, baste the legs, and place back in the oven. 
11. Baste every 30 minutes for 2 -2½ hours. (Every oven is a little different, so if you know yours runs hot, then make sure to check the internal temp sooner) 
12. If the legs get too brown, tent some foil over them for the rest of the cook. 
13. When the juices run clear, take your turkey out of the oven and rest it for at least an hour! The longer you rest it, the juicier it can be.